Preventing Fluid Leaks to the Ocean from Slip-Joint Packers with Digital Subsea Technology

On floating drill ships, semi-submersible rigs and platforms, slip joint packers are used to seal drilling fluid within the telescopic riser. These elastomer seals are subject to wear through the action of ocean swell and tide and can eventually leak. If the elastomer seal failure/leak is undetected, it can result in drilling/circulating fluid spillage to the ocean and risk damage to the environment. Given the potential for reputational damage and significant expense, this is a situation that must be avoided and de-risked during operations. New packer management technology has been developed to immediately detect and eliminate fluid leaks to the environment. If the rig slip-joint packer fails, the packer management system immediately detects the pressure drop, and activates the back-up packer to avoid a spill to the ocean. As a rig/floating platform slip-joint packer wears, packer pressure must be steadily increased to maintain a positive seal. The system applies intelligent digital ‘dead band’ tracking to automatically adjust the alarm ‘trip point’. Allowing near-instantaneous reaction time to packer leaks. Both the active packer and the back-ups are monitored, ensuring that the back-up is fully operational and immediately available. Multiple slip-joint packers can be simultaneously monitored. Ensuring that a further back-up is always ready and available, thus avoiding down time while a packer seal is replaced during a drilled interval. The system is automated, intelligent and removes the human factor, reacting near-instantaneously to prevent spills and environmental incidents. Increasing the sustainability of sub-sea field development for operators. Slip-joint packer operation is monitored 24/7 and data can be transmitted and accessed live. In the event of an incident operators have immediate access to data. If problems are encountered, these may be detected and solved remotely, with the number of rig visits significantly reduced.